After the Money’s Gone: I’m Feeling Broke Today

After the Money’s Gone: I’m Feeling Broke Today

Even though I’m not broke, I’m feeling very broke today. Perhaps it’s because my husband bought a new laptop last night and I am jealous. It makes me reflect once again on my financial situation. A news article about the average family savings made the point that many people, particularly poor people, do not have savings for emergencies. I remember being that poor. I am proud of having learned to manage my money independently of my husband, who helped me out financially when we first got married. I owe my independence to a financial advisor. Everyone should have a financial advisor. Anyway, objectively, I am not broke, but I feel deprived today. bell hooks once wrote (I think in Yearning) that she was never able to escape feeling deprived because of a childhood of deprivation. I identify with that statement.

Social comparison theory tells us that we judge ourselves by measuring ourselves against others. This is what I found is the average family’s financial situation: